Our 2024 FC Dallas player recaps continue with Bernard Kamungo.

We’ve talked a lot about Kamungo’s rise over the last two seasons. Going into 2024, we assumed he would continue to grow as a player while potentially landing a spot in Paris with the United State’s Olympic team. Unfortunately, between injuries, formation, and coaching changes, Kamungo struggled in 2024.

Stat breakdown

Kamungo more than doubled his minutes from 2023 this season. He appeared in 29 games with 13 of those as a starter. His goal output went from six goals in 2023 to zero in 2024. But his assists numbers went from zero in 2023 to two in 2024.

Okay, the main thing that stands out to me here with Kamungo is how he didn’t fit the new system that former head coach Nico Estevez wanted to establish in 2024. When I look at his profile on FotMob, he had four positions to his name in 2024. He was a striker at times, a right or left winger, an attacking midfielder and a left wing back.

When he was deployed as a winger in the 3-4-3, his production went way down. When he was used as more of an attacking player or a true winger in the midfield, his production was more on par with what he had in 2023.

He ended the year with 27 shots, nine on target for a 33% on target percentage. That was down from his 40% in 2023. He went from adding about a 2.2 xG per 90 to adding a negative 2.4 xG per 90. Kamungo also had six goal creating actions.

Defensively, he had 23 tackles, 14 blocks, six interceptions, and 12 clearances.

In possession, he was dispossessed 26 times. Only Logan Farrington and Petar Musa were dispossessed more in 2024.

Highlight

While Kamungo didn’t find the back of the net, we did see some glimpses of what we can bring to the attack with his movement on and off the ball in this goal in Houston.

0:00
/0:43

Yeah, that was really it. He did have one more assist on the season in a 2-1 loss at home early in the year against CF Montreal.

💵
This story is available for free to everyone. If you’d like to support us but don’t want to commit to a full subscription, you can leave us a tip of any amount.

What should we expect from him in 2025?

A lot of what happens with Kamungo’s progression will largely depend on who the new manager is and what kind of system he runs. If we return to a 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, or something like a 4-1-2-1-2, Kamungo would thrive again.

I also believe that whoever the new manager is needs to work with Kamungo on his defensive work. When he was placed in the fullback role, teams learned quickly to target his side of the field as he would struggle to get back on defense.

Final thoughts

We know 2024 was a down year for the entire FC Dallas team outside of maybe Musa.

Kamungo earned more minutes, but we didn’t see him progress more like we assumed we would get out of him. Maybe the hype he had going into 2024 got to him. Or maybe other teams figured out how to defend him better. At the end of the year, I think it was probably a mix of those two things with maybe a heavier lean on the latter of the two.

I want to believe we’ll see more of the 2023 version of Kamungo in 2025. But again, it all comes down to who the new manager is and what system they run. That will be true for a lot of the other players left on our player recaps that I will be doing this offseason.